Poor Rascal
A few of you asked about Rascal so here is the long sad story.
Friday, Feb 8th - It started snowing while I was at work. I hate driving in the snow, but I can't leave because I'm a manager. My schedule then only had me at work until 3:30 p.m. anyway. Needless to say that the last two people left on my team left with me at 3:30 p.m. There was about 6 to 8 inches of snow that I needed to clean off my car before I started for home. I was pretty nervous... Once I pulled out onto the road however, I was fine. The plows had done a great job and the roads were down to pavement. I was so fine with driving at that point that I went to the store first to pick up dinner.
Once I got back home, I opened my front door to find Rascal greeting me as usual. He was there trying to stick his nose out the door to see what was going on outside. As an indoor cat with no claws - that wasn't happening. I put the groceries away and went upstairs to use the bathroom. The bathroom is Rascal time... He loves to sit on the rug in front of me and talk to me. I swear he's telling me what a bitch I am for having left him so long. He then proceeds to rub his head (and whole massive body) on the rug - it's his favorite rug.
After I was finished in the bathroom, I plopped down on the couch to watch TV. Rascal came right over for his daily scratches. He stayed with me for about 10 minutes before he tried to bite my hand off. (You would think that he would just jump back down off the couch once he finished with me petting him - oh no, not him - he'd rather bite my hand). When he left I laid down on the couch started to watch a movie.
About an hour into the movie, Rascal decided to join me. I made room for him on the couch and he laid down next to me. I was absentmindedly stroking him when all of a sudden his neck started to pull back and his tail came up and spiraled curled. It looked like he got a big giant neck cramp... I knew something was really wrong when he started to cry. I kept asking him Rascal, what's the matter! As if he could answer me - no he just looked at me with this shocked look in his eyes. I jumped off the couch and called my parents house. Tears were not coming out yet, but I was sobbing because I knew... I just knew. My mom answered the phone and I hysterically demanded she put Dad on the line. She kept saying, "Nisey, what's the matter!?" I couldn't tell her - I just wanted my Dad. She finally told me that he had gone out to pick up dinner. I then told her that Rascal was on my couch - at this point gasping for breath and something was really wrong. She told me she would come over right away. I told her no, to please wait for Dad. She then hung up the phone on me. Oops, she didn't mean to do that I don't think. I went back over to the couch and I started to talk to Rascal... I was afraid to touch him because in the past he's bitten me before when he was scared and sent me to the ER. I watched Rascal take a final deep breath - and that was it. He was gone. The whole thing happened in about 2 minutes.
My mother eventually called back and told me that they were on their way - my father had gotten back from getting dinner. I was hysterically crying at this point and kept telling her that Rascal was gone. I couldn’t look at Rascal on the couch anymore so I sat in my stairway to wait for them. It took them longer than normal to get to my house because the snow had changed over to a ice/rain mix which was making the roads slick. When they finally got here, I couldn't move. They went over to see Rascal and I moved to the kitchen - I wasn't going back in that room. They took care of Rascal for me - My dad put him in his cat carrier and they packed me and the cat up in their car and brought me home with them. It was about 6:30/7:00 at that point and our Vet wasn't open. My poor parents - they started to cry when they saw him. I wasn't really sure my Dad was crying until we got home and he kept sneaking off to the bathroom to wipe his eyes. I felt so bad that I made them have to pick him up off my couch but I just couldn't look at him again.
The next day my parents took him to the Vet... I didn't go with them. I couldn't even see the cat carrier at that point. They brought me back to my condo instead.
Rascal lived a good grumpy 10 year life. I'll miss him.